The work is mainly an analytical study of Sukracharya's code, so that the data of Hindu Sociology collected here reflect generally those phases of Indian cultural evolution which have influenced the authors of the Sukra cycle. This Positive Background of Hindu Sociology, therefore, is more or less a statical picture, and represents chiefly such landmarks in the culture-history of the Hindus as are embodied in the single document Sukraniti.

The introduction to Sukraniti has been called the Positive Background of Hindu Sociology, because Sukraniti as a Nitisastra, Arthasastra, Dharmasastra, or Dharmasutra deals mainly with the topics implied by such Hindu Categories as Dharma (morals), Artha (interests) and Kama (desires and passions) as opposed to Moksa (salvation); and hence a study in Sukraniti should properly be a study in the nonmoksa or non-transcendental and non-mystical i.e., the secular, worldly, materialistic and 'positive' elements of Hindu social economy.

About the Author:

Professor Benoy Kumar Sarkar was the founder and organizer of National Council of Education, Bengal established in 1906. He was a Professor at the Bengal National College, Calcutta. In 1907 he founded the Maldaha Jatiya Siksa Samiti which used to run a number of primary and secondary schools. Professor Sarkar was a pioneer in the field of Education. He write profusely in a number of Indian and Western languages continuously for four decades and served the society wholeheartedly as an author, educationist and a social reformer. He travelled almost the entire West and devoted a book in Bengali to each country that he visited.

From Comte to Tonnies
The Historico-Comparative Method
The Synthesis of the Transcendental and the Positive in Hindu Institutions and Ideals
What is the Positive?
The Positivistic Strands in Hindu Literature
The Place of the Sukraniti in Positivism
The Sociology of Muller, Senart and Weber Under Challenge
The Dualism of Pareto, Fichte and Del Vecchio Acceptable in Social Philosophy
"Back to Kant"
Sorokin's Denunciations of Monism and Avoidance of Racial Obsessions in Sociology
India's Affinities with Eur-America in Sorokin's Analysis
Recognition of the Positive Background by Formichi, Bottazzi, Hillebrandt, Meyer, Breloe and Keith
The "New Indology" in Luders and von Glasenapp
Secularization of Hindu Politics in Masson Oursel and Berr
Survivals of Traditional Indology.

CHAPTER II
Hindu Culture and Sociology in Sukraniti

Nitisastra as Social Science
The Four Branches of Human Science in Hindu Thought
Universality and Relativity of the Sukraniti

CHAPTER III.
Landmarks in the History of Hindu
Political Development

"Greater India" comprised in the Geography of Hindu Culture
Cultural Developments down to the MohenjoDara Complex (c. B.C. 5000-2500)
The Vedic-Hindu Epochs (c. B.C. 2500-600 B.C.)
Hindu Republics
Maurya India (B.C. 322-185)
De la Vallee Poussin and Foucher on the Problem of Unity
Haushofer and Wust on the Unreality of "Higher" Units
From the Andhras and Kusans to the Senas and Cholas (c. B.C. 240-1310 A.C.)
The Gujara-Pratiharas (c. 800-1200) and Kleinstaaterei
The Moslem Question
A Parallel Between Asia and Europe
Vaidya on c.1000 A.C.
Kasmir (650-1339)
Vijayanagara (1336-1565) and the Marathas (1640-1818)
The Sikhs
Reassertion of the Hindus as Political Powers (c. 1650-c. 1850)
The Geopolitics of Culture-Contact and Social Mobility

The Categories and Chronology of Vedic Literature
Vedic Positivism
The Perspectives of Vedic Political Thought
The Pluralistic Make-up of the Vedic Culture-Complex
The Purusa -Sukta No Index to Caste Origins or Social Order
The Vaisya in the Taittiriya "Social Award"
Non-Aryans, "Lower Classes" and Sudras in Vedic Polity
The Vratya in the Vedic Milieu
Sakya the Buddha, a Risi with a non-Vedic Upanisad
Divinity due to Kingship, Not Kingship due to Divinity
Vedic Origins of Hindu Political Speculation
Vedic Ethics through Western Eyes

The Secular Aspects of Pali Texts
The Buddha-Kautalya Complex
The Dharma, Artha and Niti Sastras of the Buddhists
Buddhist Institutions and Ideals vis-a-vis Vedic Complex
Sakyan Positivism
Sakya as Remaker of Man
Law and Constitution in the Vinaya
The Social Institutions and Theories of the Nikayas
Asoka's Political Philosophy
The Dynamics of Buddhist Thought

Arthasastra the Work of One Person
The New Indology
Kautilya, a Title of Honour
Statesmanship vs. Scholarship in Kautalya
Compilation and Originality in the Arthasastra
Kleinstaaterei
Fourth Century, B.C.
Arthasastra not Younger than Dharmasastra
Arthasastra not Condemned by the RsisMahabharata Politics later than Arthasastra
Chemical and Metallurgical Knowledge in the Arthasastra
The Megasthenes Question
Kautalya and Vatsyayana

Indian Tradition as Starting Point
Megasthenes in Agreement with Kautalya
Kautalya as Chancellor of Chandragupta
Arthasastra as Document of Planned Economy
Kautalya = Tribonian
Arthasastra as a Comprehensive Document of Hindu Polity for All Ages
The Problem of Variations in Hindu Polity
The Welfare-State of Kautalya
Climate as Alleged Determinant in Hindu Polity
Planned Economy Old and New
Doses of Economic Freedom in the Arthasastra
Society and State in Hindu Politics

Kautalya and His Boswell

CHAPTER IX
From Kautalya to Varahamihira(c. B.C. 300-600 A.C.)

Mahayana Humanism
The Positivism of the Jaina Siddhanta
Dharmasastras (Smritis)
The Tamil Classics
The Joy of Life in Literature
The Eighteen Puranas
The Epics
Varahamihira
The Varttasastras
The Silpa Sastras
Kamandakiniti
Hindu, Positivism in Indo-China, Insulindia, Tibet and China
From Epicurus to Gregory the Great

CHAPTER X.
From Harsa to Hemadri (c. 600-1300)

Six Fundamental Formative Forces in Positicism Bhasyas and Nibandhas of Smritisastras

Hindu Impacts on Islam
The Humanism of the Modern Indian Languages
Democratic Strnads in Hindu Social Thought
Silpasastras
Puranas
The Positivism of Bengali Poetry
The Doctrine of Political Deliverers as Yugavataras in Vijayanagara
The Hindu Tradition in Maratha Politics

The Anti-Foreign and Democratic Tendencies
The Positivism of the Dasabodha
Ramdas's Utopia of Anandavanabhuvana
The Pluralistic World of Sivaji

The Cultural Nationalism of Sivaji
Sivaji as Avatara in the Siva-Bharata Rajaniti

Chandesvara's Rajanitiratnakara

Madhava's Rajadharmaprakarana of Parasara-Samhita

Vaisampayana's Nitiprakasika

Abul Fazl's Ain-iAkbari as a Semi-Moslem and Semi-Hindu Nitisastra

Nilakantha's Nitimayukha

Mitra-Misra's Rajanitiprakasa

Ramadas's Maharastradharma Barhwawa

The Marathi Rajaniti of Ramachandrapant (1716)
The Fundamental Defect in Ramachandrapant's Positivism
The Niti Tradition in Ramachandrapant

The Peshwa's Diaries (1708-1817)

The Last Text of Nitisastra: Chitnis's Marathi Rajaniti (1810)

Smriti Nibandhas

Law Scholars of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Raghunandana
Legal Thought of the Seventeenth Century
Balambhatta and Jagannatha

Rammohun (1772-1833)

The Realism of Rammohun as Champion of Vedanta, Puranas, and Tantras
The Smriti and Niti Sastras of Rammohun

CHAPTER XII.
Hindu Philosophy's Contributions to Positivism

The "Sensate" and the "Ideational"
The Geometry of "Between-men" Relations in the Dharma and Artha Sastras
The Variables and the Constants in Hindu Positivism

The work is mainly an analytical study of Sukracharya's code, so that the data of Hindu Sociology collected here reflect generally those phases of Indian cultural evolution which have influenced the authors of the Sukra cycle. This Positive Background of Hindu Sociology, therefore, is more or less a statical picture, and represents chiefly such landmarks in the culture-history of the Hindus as are embodied in the single document Sukraniti.

The introduction to Sukraniti has been called the Positive Background of Hindu Sociology, because Sukraniti as a Nitisastra, Arthasastra, Dharmasastra, or Dharmasutra deals mainly with the topics implied by such Hindu Categories as Dharma (morals), Artha (interests) and Kama (desires and passions) as opposed to Moksa (salvation); and hence a study in Sukraniti should properly be a study in the nonmoksa or non-transcendental and non-mystical i.e., the secular, worldly, materialistic and 'positive' elements of Hindu social economy.

About the Author:

Professor Benoy Kumar Sarkar was the founder and organizer of National Council of Education, Bengal established in 1906. He was a Professor at the Bengal National College, Calcutta. In 1907 he founded the Maldaha Jatiya Siksa Samiti which used to run a number of primary and secondary schools. Professor Sarkar was a pioneer in the field of Education. He write profusely in a number of Indian and Western languages continuously for four decades and served the society wholeheartedly as an author, educationist and a social reformer. He travelled almost the entire West and devoted a book in Bengali to each country that he visited.

From Comte to Tonnies
The Historico-Comparative Method
The Synthesis of the Transcendental and the Positive in Hindu Institutions and Ideals
What is the Positive?
The Positivistic Strands in Hindu Literature
The Place of the Sukraniti in Positivism
The Sociology of Muller, Senart and Weber Under Challenge
The Dualism of Pareto, Fichte and Del Vecchio Acceptable in Social Philosophy
"Back to Kant"
Sorokin's Denunciations of Monism and Avoidance of Racial Obsessions in Sociology
India's Affinities with Eur-America in Sorokin's Analysis
Recognition of the Positive Background by Formichi, Bottazzi, Hillebrandt, Meyer, Breloe and Keith
The "New Indology" in Luders and von Glasenapp
Secularization of Hindu Politics in Masson Oursel and Berr
Survivals of Traditional Indology.

CHAPTER II
Hindu Culture and Sociology in Sukraniti

Nitisastra as Social Science
The Four Branches of Human Science in Hindu Thought
Universality and Relativity of the Sukraniti

CHAPTER III.
Landmarks in the History of Hindu
Political Development

"Greater India" comprised in the Geography of Hindu Culture
Cultural Developments down to the MohenjoDara Complex (c. B.C. 5000-2500)
The Vedic-Hindu Epochs (c. B.C. 2500-600 B.C.)
Hindu Republics
Maurya India (B.C. 322-185)
De la Vallee Poussin and Foucher on the Problem of Unity
Haushofer and Wust on the Unreality of "Higher" Units
From the Andhras and Kusans to the Senas and Cholas (c. B.C. 240-1310 A.C.)
The Gujara-Pratiharas (c. 800-1200) and Kleinstaaterei
The Moslem Question
A Parallel Between Asia and Europe
Vaidya on c.1000 A.C.
Kasmir (650-1339)
Vijayanagara (1336-1565) and the Marathas (1640-1818)
The Sikhs
Reassertion of the Hindus as Political Powers (c. 1650-c. 1850)
The Geopolitics of Culture-Contact and Social Mobility

The Categories and Chronology of Vedic Literature
Vedic Positivism
The Perspectives of Vedic Political Thought
The Pluralistic Make-up of the Vedic Culture-Complex
The Purusa -Sukta No Index to Caste Origins or Social Order
The Vaisya in the Taittiriya "Social Award"
Non-Aryans, "Lower Classes" and Sudras in Vedic Polity
The Vratya in the Vedic Milieu
Sakya the Buddha, a Risi with a non-Vedic Upanisad
Divinity due to Kingship, Not Kingship due to Divinity
Vedic Origins of Hindu Political Speculation
Vedic Ethics through Western Eyes

The Secular Aspects of Pali Texts
The Buddha-Kautalya Complex
The Dharma, Artha and Niti Sastras of the Buddhists
Buddhist Institutions and Ideals vis-a-vis Vedic Complex
Sakyan Positivism
Sakya as Remaker of Man
Law and Constitution in the Vinaya
The Social Institutions and Theories of the Nikayas
Asoka's Political Philosophy
The Dynamics of Buddhist Thought

Arthasastra the Work of One Person
The New Indology
Kautilya, a Title of Honour
Statesmanship vs. Scholarship in Kautalya
Compilation and Originality in the Arthasastra
Kleinstaaterei
Fourth Century, B.C.
Arthasastra not Younger than Dharmasastra
Arthasastra not Condemned by the RsisMahabharata Politics later than Arthasastra
Chemical and Metallurgical Knowledge in the Arthasastra
The Megasthenes Question
Kautalya and Vatsyayana

Indian Tradition as Starting Point
Megasthenes in Agreement with Kautalya
Kautalya as Chancellor of Chandragupta
Arthasastra as Document of Planned Economy
Kautalya = Tribonian
Arthasastra as a Comprehensive Document of Hindu Polity for All Ages
The Problem of Variations in Hindu Polity
The Welfare-State of Kautalya
Climate as Alleged Determinant in Hindu Polity
Planned Economy Old and New
Doses of Economic Freedom in the Arthasastra
Society and State in Hindu Politics

Kautalya and His Boswell

CHAPTER IX
From Kautalya to Varahamihira(c. B.C. 300-600 A.C.)

Mahayana Humanism
The Positivism of the Jaina Siddhanta
Dharmasastras (Smritis)
The Tamil Classics
The Joy of Life in Literature
The Eighteen Puranas
The Epics
Varahamihira
The Varttasastras
The Silpa Sastras
Kamandakiniti
Hindu, Positivism in Indo-China, Insulindia, Tibet and China
From Epicurus to Gregory the Great

CHAPTER X.
From Harsa to Hemadri (c. 600-1300)

Six Fundamental Formative Forces in Positicism Bhasyas and Nibandhas of Smritisastras

Hindu Impacts on Islam
The Humanism of the Modern Indian Languages
Democratic Strnads in Hindu Social Thought
Silpasastras
Puranas
The Positivism of Bengali Poetry
The Doctrine of Political Deliverers as Yugavataras in Vijayanagara
The Hindu Tradition in Maratha Politics

The Anti-Foreign and Democratic Tendencies
The Positivism of the Dasabodha
Ramdas's Utopia of Anandavanabhuvana
The Pluralistic World of Sivaji

The Cultural Nationalism of Sivaji
Sivaji as Avatara in the Siva-Bharata Rajaniti

Chandesvara's Rajanitiratnakara

Madhava's Rajadharmaprakarana of Parasara-Samhita

Vaisampayana's Nitiprakasika

Abul Fazl's Ain-iAkbari as a Semi-Moslem and Semi-Hindu Nitisastra

Nilakantha's Nitimayukha

Mitra-Misra's Rajanitiprakasa

Ramadas's Maharastradharma Barhwawa

The Marathi Rajaniti of Ramachandrapant (1716)
The Fundamental Defect in Ramachandrapant's Positivism
The Niti Tradition in Ramachandrapant

The Peshwa's Diaries (1708-1817)

The Last Text of Nitisastra: Chitnis's Marathi Rajaniti (1810)

Smriti Nibandhas

Law Scholars of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Raghunandana
Legal Thought of the Seventeenth Century
Balambhatta and Jagannatha

Rammohun (1772-1833)

The Realism of Rammohun as Champion of Vedanta, Puranas, and Tantras
The Smriti and Niti Sastras of Rammohun

CHAPTER XII.
Hindu Philosophy's Contributions to Positivism

The "Sensate" and the "Ideational"
The Geometry of "Between-men" Relations in the Dharma and Artha Sastras
The Variables and the Constants in Hindu Positivism

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